Can You Panopto a Google Slides Presentation?

For many of us, Microsoft PowerPoint has become the de facto format for business communications.

Presentations, monthly updates, training materials, new idea pitches, status reports — virtually any formal knowledge sharing in today’s business world happens in PowerPoint (or, in some industries, on Keynote for Mac). And for good reason — used well, a deck combines all the possibility of a highly visual platform with just enough space for text to help make businesses messages clear, understandable, and memorable.

The preeminence of PowerPoint, however, will likely not last forever.

As the “deck” has emerged as a key business tool, a host of new competitors are diligently working to prove to offices around the world that their presentation tools offer better, cheaper, or more social ways of sharing knowledge.

Perhaps the best known of the new group of presentation software challengers is none other than Google Slides, part of Google’s suite of cloud-based productivity tools in Google Drive.

Why Would You Want To Build Your Deck With Google Slides?

To the uninitiated, Google Slides works similarly to PowerPoint, allowing a user to create slide-based presentations using a combination of text and images. Users can even upload existing presentations in other formats, including PowerPoint files, and allow Google to convert them into Slides presentations.

While Slides is itself a strong presentation tool, one of it’s most valuable features may actually be in its collaborative capabilities. Multiple users can work in the same Slides file simultaneously, in real time. Slides even eliminates version control issues, maintaining running access to the current version of a presentation while also enabling users to view the document’s complete revision history. Users can access the files and collaboration information on the go, with Google’s mobile Slides apps.

As businesses seek new and better ways to help teams collaborate and get work done, solutions like Google’s Slides can be options. But there’s another important consideration for these knowledge-sharing tools:

Do They Work With Your Presentation Recording Software?

Collaborating in development is certainly an opportunity — but remember, the most important aspect of any deck is not how it’s built but how it’s shared. The rise of the corporate YouTube has helped allow businesses around the world to record their decks to better supplement and reference the knowledge shared there — as such, it’s essential that every organization consider whether or not a new presentation tool like Google Slides will work well with their presentation recording software.

So — Can You Panopto a Google Slides Presentation?

With Panopto, sure! Just like a PowerPoint or Keynote deck (or a Prezi, Word, PDF, or other Doc), Panopto makes it easy to record a Google Slides presentation.

In fact, we just recorded our own sample Google Slides deck so you can see just how Panopto can support this presentation tool. See the embedded presentation below:

Three Ways You Can Record Audio & Video With Your Google Slides Presentation in Panopto

Not only does Panopto make it easy to capture a Google Slides presentation, some of the unique features of Panopto and Google Slides actually end up creating 3 different options for how you can go about making that recording.

Capturing your Google Slides presentation as a screen recording. Because Google Slides is browser-based, once your presentation is ready you can bring it up and share it live from any web browser. From here, recording is easy — simply open Panopto, make sure you’ve selected to record your screen as well as any additional video or audio sources you like, and click “record”. Panopto will capture everything you show, automatically sync your webcam or other video input, and make everything ready to share in seconds.

Capturing your Google Slides presentation as a PowerPoint file. Concerned about a weak internet connection interfering with a browser-based presentation? Or presenting from another computer and not certain it can play back a Google Slides deck? No problem — Google Slides can export any presentation as a .pptx file, ready to load into PowerPoint. Once you’ve saved the new file, to record you simply open Panopto, opt to record from PowerPoint, and click “record”. Panopto does the rest.

Combine existing presentation video with Google Slides. This option requires a bit more manual work, but may be a better option depending on your need. If video of your presentation already exists — or if you prefer to record your spoken presentation separately from your slides — with Panopto you can take the Google Slides file exported as a PowerPoint file, upload that file into your recorded presentation, and sync any or all of the slides as you see fit. Viewers will see your main video in the primary screen, with the slides you select in the secondary screen, set to your timing. You can even add other videos here as well.

No matter how you do it, Panopto captures your Google Slides presentation in full, down to the last detail. With Panopto, you just click record, present, and click stop — and everything else is automatic.

Behind The Scenes: What Happens When You Record a Slide Deck with Panopto

Here’s what happens when you record a presentation with Panopto:

Panopto records your complete presentation in HD. You can even adjust the frame rate on your screen capture video, to make animations super smooth.

Panopto can also record your HD webcam of you (as well as any other content you like — demos, whiteboards, additional screens, or almost anything else), giving you another important point of engagement with your audience.

Panopto indexes every word you say, as well as every word you show on-screen. Shortly after your presentation ends and is automatically uploaded into your video library, Panopto’s Smart Search capability will allow you and your team to search this video for just about any keyword, and instantly fast forward to the relevant moment on-demand.

If you are connected to your network, Panopto will actually upload your video while you record it, so that it can be ready to share just minutes – sometimes seconds – after you click “stop.”

No matter the business, no matter the industry, effectively sharing knowledge is key to communication, training, productivity, and more. That’s why it’s important to make sure your video platform is up to the task of helping you record, share, and search any anything and everything, anywhere and on-demand.